


Another Story

by setarelven



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29837472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setarelven/pseuds/setarelven
Summary: What if strawberry was nothing but a fruit...And Soul Society was not prosperous, but rather an empire in decay...
Kudos: 1





	Another Story

1-1: An Odd Summer's Day

_Hear the sound of the falling rain  
Coming down like an Armageddon flame  
A shame  
The ones who died without a name_

Alex bounced along the path, listening to Green Day on a Discman and singing without a care. The sounds of the forest were nice, but it was always nicer to bounce along to music; at any rate, it was a beautiful June day, so beautiful that even the normally reclusive Alex couldn't help but get out and go exploring. Moving in a month was going to suck because while here Alex could leave the apartment and have the choice of going to the mall across the street, taking the Skytrain into downtown, or exploring all the creeks and forests, and of course the mountain; Mom, on the other hand, wanted to move to a boring-ass suburb chock-full of fundamentalist bullshit, because that meant she could own a house rather than having to rent or something. Alex thought it fucking sucked and didn't want it, but there when it came to any big life changes Mom wanted to make because she knew better, she _always_ knew better, even when she ripped Alex away from good friends and an amazing school. Whatever. It didn't matter.

_Hear the dogs howlin' out of key  
To a hymn called faith and misery  
And bleed, the company lost the war today_

Up ahead was the old gun club that had been shut down for nearly a decade now, but there were weird stories floating around this area: rumors of weird apparitions, people getting inexplicably lost, and this supposed ghost playground just sitting in the middle of the woods. Alex had come here, camera in hand, in hopes of documenting at least the playground since that was the most likely of those stories to actually be true. Pictures of the gun club were just a bonus, though there really weren't enough abandoned things in this city because everything always got redeveloped so goddamned _fast_.

It *was* eerily quiet for a summer's day; even the sound of cars and trucks on the nearby highway was strangely muted, and the entire area had this strange feeling around it that Alex only got around abandoned places. In a way it was like feeling echoes of buried memories, hearing but not hearing muted sounds, seeing but not seeing vague imprints of *before*. Sometimes Alex could swear to have seen actual people, ghosts perhaps, but there had never been any way to confirm it since there had always been something else that needed to be done, somewhere else that Mom needed to whisk Alex off to, something else that her or the rest of the family wanted...him to be.

_I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies  
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives  
On holiday!_

_Gods, I wish._ Alex sighed, thinking of the disappointment lingering from George Bush's re-election last year and the concurrent joke that was Canadian politics, split between a corrupt and decrepit Liberal government and a Conservative Party that looked to bring Bush's right-wing bullshit north as much as it could. Sometimes it felt like the world would just **never** get better, especially not with how the US seemingly looked at Fahrenheit 9/11 (which Alex had seen the previous September) and said "yeah, we want more of that transparent corruption". Hell, it had even happened in the provincial election the past month; a Liberal government that had gotten the Legislature raided by the RCMP over the sale of BC Rail, absolutely destroyed Mom's attempt at a teaching career when it had barely started, and whose leader had been arrested for drunk driving in Maui, had been re-elected nonetheless.

Those thoughts were derailed suddenly as Alex noticed a strange object at the side of the path. A pole...no, a **swing set.** _The playground!_ The merry-go-round was nowhere in sight, but there was at least still an old wooden swing attached to this swing set. Alex took out the camera and immediately snapped pictures from multiple angles, then just stopped and took in the surroundings for a bit. What had been here, who had lived around here, Alex didn't know, but by focusing enough could feel an echo of whatever had been here before and left behind only this remnant of a playground, just enough to know that it was more than just some weird municipal anachronism.

The breeze picked up a bit, rustling the trees in a way that just seemed...off, enough to bring Alex back to earth. Now that there were pictures of the rumored playground, the next step was to check out the gun club -- hopefully without getting bothered by cops or security. Off the path, into the forest, over a creek and a small fence and...there it was, almost too easily. Alex snapped pictures of everything: rusted cars and machinery, the old target berms, and the concrete firing area with the painted stall numbers still visible, before walking over to the clubhouse (staying rather pointedly clear of a pile of gas, diesel, paint, and other assorted toxic chemicals dumped carelessly beside it). Apparently, before the place had been a gun club, this had been the school teacher's house for a townsite that had once sat here? As Alex went up onto the porch though, all thoughts of what might have been here were derailed by voices coming from inside the building -- or, more specifically, what the voices were _talking about_ : "...like this place is absolutely seeded with negative spiritual energy...almost like some sort of curse." A rough voice, with a distinct Irish inflection, but in that distinct Canadian way Alex instantly recognized, was talking about...curses and spirits? What was this, some supernatural shit? "I see why you took this on yourself, Captain."

"The reports didn't mince words," this supposed Captain responded a softer, cooler voice that in the moment seemed all-knowing. "This whole area is especially prone to not just attracting Hollows, but *strengthening* them in ways we don't normally see elsewhere."

"Should we report this?"

"Report it?" The all-knowing voice took on an almost _annoyed_ tone. "Ryan, didn't you read the same reports I did? We wouldn't be the first by far, and just like every other, the Central 46 would probably just point out that there was no actual evidence of any such thing happening, like the bureaucrats--"

Something, that Alex couldn't tell if it was a noise or just some strange feeling, broke all concentration and demanded Alex turn around. Just in time, seemingly, because there was a girl...about Alex's age, wearing some sort of robes that felt vaguely...Japanese? Alex could swear they resembled something from an anime, at least. At any rate, she was looking straight at Alex in a way that...clearly, something was amiss to her, and that something was Alex, which meant it was time to leave. With a rare burst of agility Alex was up on top of the porch rail, over the fence, then over the guardrail and sprinting down the highway to the nearby bus stop -- and she was in luck, as she could see a bus waiting at a rare red light for someone to leave the seaside park across the street. That gave Alex a moment to rest and get out the book of bus tickets, at least. Alex didn't check to see where the girl was, just focused on the bus pulling up, mind racing: _just act like you didn't see her, act like you didn't notice, up the step, validate your pass, quickly to the back, there's a window seat, grab a corner headphones on and...just...is that the girl? No. Don't look. Just. Pretend you don't notice._ Alex turned to look out the window, putting on the best possible zoned-out look, letting music blot out the sound of the bus.

* * *

_All I can say is my life is pretty plain  
I like watching the puddles gather rain  
And all I can do is just pour some tea for two  
And speak my point of view  
But it's not sane..._

Momo Hinamori couldn't get over the awe and excitement. Here she was, not just finally a Lieutenant, but on an important assignment! With Captain Aizen himself! Not only that, but it didn't _feel_ like an assignment at all, at least not so far. At first, Captain Aizen had simply told her to prepare for her first high-level assignment in the human world that would require not only the both of them but also the new ranking officer, 3rd Seat Ryan Feldric, who Captain Aizen had had transferred from 6th Division to replace her, but didn't say where it would be; she'd thought it was just another assignment in Japan right up until she was on the train with him in Tokyo and asked: _"Captain, where are we getting off?"_

 _"Haneda,"_ Captain Aizen had replied with that soft, caring smile of his. _"The airport, in case you weren't aware."_

Momo had to stop herself from jumping out of her seat. _"The...airport!? But...couldn't we just have..."_

Captain Aizen gave a soft chuckle, producing two first-class tickets from his coat, as well as two Japanese passports. _"I wanted to surprise you, and I thought you'd like to ride on an airplane at least once. Consider it my gift to you, out of respect for the work you've done to get here. We may have an assignment in Vancouver, but we can still take time to ourselves, can't we?"_

That had just been the start. The first day after getting in, Captain Aizen had taken her to the biggest mall around, which had what had to be one of the biggest arcades she'd ever seen in her life. There, they'd met Ryan and just spent most of the day at the arcade before going back to a house that Captain Aizen said was _his_ , not the Gotei 13's, and nothing said there would ever leave those walls. Captain Aizen even gave Momo her own expense card to buy things in the human world on the Gotei 13's expense account, as well as a brand-new thing he called an "MP3 player" that had a bunch of music he'd picked out for her on it, including the song she was listening to as she looked across the road and the water at the towering mountains to the north right now. He really was as amazing as he'd seemed for all those years...years of training, working hard to impress him, and the reward couldn't be more worth it!

_All I can say is my life is pretty plain  
You don't like my point of view  
And I'm insane..._

_Hey, space cadet,_ came the responsible part of her brain, _you're supposed to be on duty here, keeping an eye out._ Momo shook her head, pausing the music and letting her headphones drop around her neck. Normally she could rely mostly on her senses to detect any unusual fluctuations in spiritual pressure, but here it seemed like **everything** felt vaguely wrong, clouding that sense more than enough that even Captain Aizen couldn't use it effectively and had to post Momo on lookout.

 _"Close your eyes and reach out, Hinamori. What do you feel?"_ , Captain Aizen had asked her in the car as they drove away from the airport and into Vancouver for the first time, when Momo had asked why they were here.

_"...Everything...Everything feels off, somehow. Like something is buried beneath the surface, just barely out of sight. I've never felt anything like this..."_

Captain Aizen had simply nodded. _"That's why we're here."_

That was certainly how it felt here, as Momo surveyed the immediate area. Apparently the building here and three houses further down the road were the last remnants of a settlement that had once been built here around a massive lumber camp, but there was scant evidence of that now...and nothing felt _settled_ , at least not spiritually. The place had existed for such a relatively short time, and then just been...destroyed and forgotten, its memories erased more for lack of care than anything, and that gave it such an ominous feeling. It wasn't that any Hollows or negative souls were tied to the place so much as that the place itself exuded negative spiritual energy because of what had happened to it. And it wasn't _just_ this place that did so...it just felt relatively stronger here, as it did in more than a few other places she'd passed by so far, than the sort of 'baseline' level she got in most parts of this city. Strong enough that it was hard to even pick up Captain Aizen and Ryan despite the fact that they were just inside that red building she was now looking at, which had a human listening at the door-- _wake up, Lieutenant, it's time to do your job! This is the very something that Captain Aizen wanted you to do something about!_

"Hey!", she called, reflexively, not thinking that a human would be able to hear...only to see this human turn around and look her straight in the eye. _Oh no. Oh crap. It's one that can see. And definitely heard me. And definitely sees me. Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap!_ Again, she was thankful for Captain Aizen's love of convenience, as he'd also given her a device that allowed her to dispense with bulky _gigai_ and use a human form at will, which was especially useful for situations like these. Hopefully she wouldn't be recognized in her "human" form -- and then, suddenly, as she switched forms she had to deal with the downside: she couldn't use any of her powers, and this...person who had definitely seen her in Shinigami form was running down the road, trying to get on a bus and get the hell out of here.

 _Just follow!_ Momo's basic training kicked in as she sprinted up the road and over the protective barrier, just barely getting to the bus -- all the while noting that the sign on the front read _160 Port Coquitlam_ \-- at the last second and flashing the monthly pass Captain Aizen had given her at the driver. She could see her quarry sit down at the back, so she sat near the front, trying her best to keep an eye without necessarily being noticed doing so. _Cell phone! Gods, how could I...right, remember, Captain Aizen said it's new to humans too._ Quick as a flash, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Captain Aizen a text message so as not to attract attention, letting him know what bus she was on at the very least. _"Blend in as best you can,"_ Captain Soifon's voice echoed in her head, from the private training sessions Captain Aizen had arranged with her. "Use whatever you can to look like you're not paying attention. I find that looking like you're just staring into space works very well." Momo put her headphones and music back on and just kind of tilted her head in the human's general direction, mostly looking straight past them out the window but still very able to see when they inevitably got up to get off the bus.

 _I wonder what it must be like, living in the human world,_ Momo wondered as she watched. _It seems so much...easier, especially with all this technology humans have that most of Soul Society seems to laugh at._ Her eyes caught the sight outside the window and drifted, focusing on the inlet, and the mountains rising above it. _And it would be especially nice to live here, when it's so beautiful. Captain Aizen said that it gets even better inland...I hope he's right._ Momo's eyes returned to this human she was following, as the bus started to turn away from the water, wondering what their life must be like. _They must go to school, or something like that, but...right now they're obviously not, and where do they go after...other than home? Not a small room that they call home either, but an actual home, with a family? I remember my family, barely...and even then I'm told I'm lucky to remember that much. For people like Renji, or Kira, or Hisagi, the closest thing they know to family is all of us..._

The unmistakeable _pong_ of the stop cord jarred her out of her thoughts. She allowed herself a quick glance at her target and, sure enough, they were getting up to get off - luckily with a few other people. Momo lingered as long as she could, still looking like she was out of it before getting up and squeezing out the back door almost at the last second, keeping her distance as much as possible as she followed the human across both streets - and having to almost break into a run as she saw her target speed up to get on another bus that had just pulled up. This time, it was standing room only, and Momo was almost unprepared for the lurch as this bus snaked up the mountainside - she'd been putting her music on, and nearly dropped the music player as she held on almost for dear life. Her target, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed, even perhaps used to it; they took the lurch almost in stride, not moving an inch. It was mesmerizing in a way Momo hadn't felt before, a way she didn't have the words to describe but that made her inexplicably happy to be watching this complete stranger. The song that came on actually felt the same way...

_(Uh-oh, it's magic)  
When I'm with you  
(Uh-oh, it's magic)  
Just a little magic  
You know it's true_

_Wouldn't it be nice,_ she thought, _just to spend a single day with them? Maybe they could show me around this city, they probably live here, right?_ It didn't take much for her to slip into daydreams of being together at the arcade in Metrotown, or in the park right by it, or maybe hiking around some of the trails she'd wanted to explore but for her assigned duty to keep an eye out for Ryan and Captain Aizen. Anything, everything, felt like it would be so much better if it were with them. She hadn't felt like this before, not even towards Toshiro (despite constant ribbing from Rangiku that they should get together) -- and even if she did, Toshiro wasn't interested in anything like that with *anyone*, they'd said so themselves.

 _Stop it,_ came that responsible voice from inside. _You don't even know them. They might not be into you at all, or they might be someone completely terrible!_ The odd sighing noise as the bus came to a stop and the object of her interests got up to get off mimicked her feelings for a short instant, before that voice came again, somehow reassuringly: _You do have an excuse to *follow* them, though!_

 _Right!_ Momo was up in a flash, almost diving to make it out the door before it closed. She continued to keep her distance as she followed the human through a parking lot and then down the cross street they'd gotten off at, past more parking lots...that was the one thing that really sucked, all the _parking lots_ taking up so much space, but thankfully it wasn't long before the human crossed another small street and then turned and went into an apartment tower, taking the elevator up. _Ugh! There's no way I can..._ Momo's thought was cut off as she saw the elevator stop on the third floor, with another one waiting for her. She moved as quickly as possible, trying to will the elevator to go faster in opening the door, closing it, making it up the two floors...and as she stepped out, she was _just_ lucky enough to hear a door close at the far end of the hallway, where there was only one apartment. _Yes! Got you!_ Momo went back down to the entrance feeling not just triumphant but _useful_ , because Captain Aizen, unlike a lot of the other Captains and officers, always seemed actually interested when Momo brought these sorts of random weird things to his attention. _"Even the smallest things can matter far more than most people are willing to admit,_ she remembered him saying as she sent another message telling him to meet her at the library across the street from the apartment tower. _"Don't worry about bringing anything you find to my attention. Combat strength, after all, is not the only form of power -- so is understanding how things work, because if you understand a thing, then you have the ability to change it."_

* * *

Alex, sighed, sitting down and turning on the PS2, yet leaving the TV off for now and heading out into the kitchen to get some food. It didn't matter how long or short it was, walking up and down all these hills was *tiring*. At least the bus ride had been uneventful...there had been that person who looked like she *might* have been that girl that Alex had seen...might have seen back at the gun range, but maybe Alex had just been seeing things. And hearing things. _All that weird shit about 'spiritual energy', 'hollows', sounded like it might be out of some anime or something. No way it could be real,_ Alex thought, putting some water in a pot in order to cook some frozen perogies. Just after Alex put the heat on, though, someone knocked at the door.

At the door were two men, one in front of the other, both in suits. The one standing in behind had a suntanned face and green eyes with a gaze that felt like steel, but this was contrasted by the man standing in front, whose suit simply made him look like a friendly high school principal with his friendly face, large glasses, and envelope in his hand. "Good afternoon. I'm Aizen Sousuke, CEO of Sousuke Feldric Properties, and I presume you are Alex Cavers?" Alex nodded, feeling almost unable to be anything but interested as the man continued. "And I would like to personally congratulate you on your outstanding academic achievements this year. Every year we select a few exceptional students in this province for a special prize and work-study opportunity, and yours stood out to me personally." Alex took the envelope but couldn't think of _what_ these achievements might have been other than making the honour roll every semester and *once* with distinction, but it didn't seem to matter to Mr. Sousuke as he continued, "The prize this year is a new Xbox 360 console when it launches, which I'm sure you will enjoy."

Alex had to stop from letting out an embarrassing squeak. "Seriously?! Sweet!! But...that's not coming out until October, and I'm not going to be living here then, my mom bought a house in Langley and we're moving at the end of the month. Do you want our new address?"

Mr. Sousuke nodded to the man with the steel gaze (Mr. Feldric, perhaps?), who pulled out a pen and an address book. "Go ahead. My business partner will write it down."

"Number 7, 8716 Walnut Grove Drive, Langley. And thank you so much."

"It is an honor to recognize you for your efforts, Alex. One last thing, though," Mr. Sousuke offered Alex a rather ornate-looking business card. "If you're ever downtown, drop by my office. It's in the Bentall Centre, right at Burrard Station, so it shouldn't be out of the way. This is one of my personal cards; show it to the receptionist, and they'll send you right to me."

Alex looked down at the card, which indeed looked like it had been printed at considerably more expense than most business cards, with gold-embossed lines and lettering. "I...thank you, but, I don't see what I can do for you. I'm still in high school."

Mr. Sousuke had the sort of face that looked like a permanent smile already, but somehow he was able to smile more. "I know that minds like yours are what make our dreams into reality, and I know that when we find something that engages a mind like yours, wonderful things happen. We will find that thing, and you will see for yourself what you can do. Now, though," Mr. Sousuke stepped back to leave, "I must attend to other business, such as life. I will see you again -- hopefully soon."

Alex let go of the door and let it shut as the two walked away, looking intently at the business card and just thinking for a moment. _Really? We will find that thing...and I will see for myself? No way. This can't be real. But..._ Alex returned to the bedroom, food completely banished from thought as what Mr. Sousuke had said -- and implied -- percolated and processed. _Maybe...maybe when I have some time, and energy. Not today, that's for sure, but soon._ The card went into Alex's school backpack, the thing that Mom and the rest of Alex's family never looked in. There's no way they'd believe this, in fact they'd probably just strictly warn Alex off.

Thinking time was done, though. Alex turned on the TV, and all real world thoughts were wiped away by the game's menu music.

_Don't waste your touch, you won't feel anything  
Or were you sent to save me?  
I've thought too much, you won't find anything  
Worthy of redeeming_

_(Yo he estado aquí muchas veces antes y regresó)_

_To break down, and cease all feeling_   
_Burn now, what once was breathing_   
_Reach out, and you may take my heart away_


End file.
